Little Plate

Electromechanical Reverb

User’s Guide
Version 5.2 : For Mac and Windows
 CONTENTS Little Plate

THE BASICS / Pg. 3

About Little Plate ......................................................................................... pg. 3

What’s A Plate Reverb?................................................................................ pg. 3

THE CONTROL PANEL / Pg. 4

Decay ............................................................................................................... pg. 4

Infinite Decay Time ....................................................................................... pg. 5
Low Cut ........................................................................................................... pg. 5
Mod .................................................................................................................. pg. 5
Mix .................................................................................................................... pg. 5

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION / Pg. 7

Support / Contact ......................................................................................... pg. 7

Trademark Information ............................................................................... pg. 8

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 THE BASICS Little Plate

ABOUT LITTLE PLATE undoubtedly the most iconic example of plate reverb, and remains a
truly ingenious invention. Before the plate, when engineers wanted
to add realistic reverberation to a recording they had to pipe sound
We had two objectives when designing Little Plate: to create a lifelike
into physical rooms or echo chambers. The EMT 140 instead uses a
reproduction of the classic EMT 140 plate reverb sound, and to extend
magnetic transducer to vibrate a massive sheet of metal, sending the
its features in ways not possible in an analog effect. We hope you’ll love
result back to the engineer via a pickup that captures the resulting
using Little Plate as much as we loved making it.
reverberation. While other early reverberation devices use springs,
this tends to create a metallic and fluttery sound. The plate, however,
It wasn’t enough for us to just go to someone’s studio and study an EMT
is capable of dense and smooth reverberation unlike anything the
140 for a day or two. We went out and collected five of them so that
world had heard. While it doesn’t exactly sound like a real room, it has
we could live with them, tune them up, detune them, modify them, and
a beauty of its own, which is why plate reverb is still such a sought-
study them extensively. Then we distilled what we learned into a plug-in
after sound even many decades later. EMT 140s are getting hard to
that we think exemplifies classic plate reverb sound—dense, smooth, and
find though, and replacement parts even harder. Not to mention their
a little bit dark.
sheer size and weight keep them out of reach of the average studio.
But don’t worry, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Little Plate
Then we went farther by extending the maximum reverberation
faithfully recreates the 140 vibe right inside of your favorite DAW.
time to infinity. We also included modulation that creates subtle,
lush movement within the reverb tail. Whether you’re looking for an
authentic recreation of classic plate reverb, or looking to go farther, we
think you’ll find that Little Plate is more than up to the task.

WHAT’S A PLATE REVERB?

The plate reverb is one of the most unlikely heroes in recording history,
but it changed the sound of records forever. Simultaneously enormous
and understated, the original wood-clad EMT 140 weighs in at about
600 pounds. It’s not pretty. It’s a piece of equipment that’s essentially
made to be hidden away in a utility closet far from the studio’s loud
live room. But despite it’s humble, boxy exterior, the EMT 140 is

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 THE CONTROL PANEL Little Plate

Figure 1: Little Plate’s Control Panel

DECAY possible to get much longer extended decay times when you move into
the red section of the Decay control range. The maximum (non-infinite)

The Decay Time control (shortened to Decay on the control panel) is decay time setting is about one minute in length.

the most important control in Little Plate. It affects how long it takes
for a sound to fade away after entering the reverb. Changing the decay The decay times listed on the Decay knob are more specifically mea-

time will have a huge effect on how the reverb sounds, with short set- surements of RT60 at 500 Hz. RT60 is a standard way of measuring

tings producing tighter, room like sounds, and very long settings produc- reverberation time, and it indicates how long it takes a sound to decay

ing huge, cavernous sounds. by 60 decibels. We chose 500 Hz for our measurements because this is
how decay time is listed on the EMT 140’s control panel. The reason we

In the hardware EMT 140, decay time is controlled by a damper, which need to specify a frequency is that decay times are frequency depen-

has the effect of shortening reverberation time the closer it is moved to dent in a plate reverb. This frequency dependent decay also depends on

the vibrating metal plate. Even with the damper at its maximum dis- the damper (or decay knob in this case) position, giving each decay time

tance from the plate, the physical EMT 140 is only capable of about five its own unique tone. At all decay time settings, high frequencies fade

seconds of reverberation time (at 500 Hz). In Little Plate we’ve made it away faster than everything else. The low end varies drastically with

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 THE CONTROL PANEL
decay time though, with shorter decay times creating a tight, controlled
sound and longer decay times (four to five seconds) creating a warm,
boomy sound that can be reined in with the Low Cut control.
INFINITE DECAY TIME
With Decay set to infinity (decay knob turned fully clockwise), the rever-
berating signal will not fade away. This allows sounds to reverberate for
an indefinite amount of time. The sound of the reverberating audio will
continue to change and darken over time, and new sound that enters
the reverb will continue to influence its sound.
CAUTION: Be sure to watch your levels when using infinite decay. Play-
ing sustained loud passages into the reverb can build up a large amount
of energy inside the virtual plate (translation: it might get loud!).
TIPS:
• Experiment with automating the Decay control in your host appli-
cation to smoothly turn infinite mode on and off to “hold” certain
passages of audio in the reverb.
• Try playing into Little Plate live using infinite decay as a composi-
tional tool.
LOW CUT
The Low Cut control will filter out low frequencies from the audio signal
before they enter the reverb. Low Cut will not affect the dry, unpro-
cessed audio signal.
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TIP: Because low frequency signals can decay slower than high frequen-
cy signals in a plate reverb, there will tend to be a natural buildup of bass
energy in the reverb tail. If you find the result of the reverb too muddy or
boomy, increase the Low Cut amount to reduce the amount of bass being
fed to the reverb.
MOD
The Mod switch introduces slight modulation within the reverb effect.
This modulation creates subtle variations in the reverb, which can make
the resulting sound thicker and smoother, especially at longer decay
times. The sound of the modulation can best be heard on pitched instru-
ments like keys, guitar, and voice as opposed to percussive instruments
like drums. This creates subtle pitch-modulated sounds that simply aren’t
possible in a physical plate.
TIP: Try experimenting with Mod when you are using decay times that
are very long, especially when using the infinite setting, for a rich, lush
sound.
MIX
The Mix control blends the reverb signal with the unprocessed input
signal. With the knob set to “Dry” there will be no reverb signal present
in the output of the effect. With the knob set to “Wet,” there will be only
reverb signal in the output of the effect.
There was no mix control on physical plates. Instead, signal was tradition-
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 THE CONTROL PANEL Little Plate

MIX (CONTINUED)

ally sent out to the plate via a mixer’s auxiliary send, and blended back
in on a return fader. This enabled engineers to send multiple sounds at
differing levels into their plate simultaneously and control the overall
reverb balance with a single fader. This creates the impression that all of
those instruments are playing in the same space. This is how we rec-
ommend you use Little Plate - on an aux bus with the Mix knob at 100
percent wet.

However, you are free to use Little Plate however you wish, and we have
included a specially-designed Mix knob for you should you wish to use
Little Plate as an insert. The Mix knob differs from a typical mix knob in
that when you start at 0 percent and fade up, it is mostly increasing the
level of the reverb, and doing very little to the level of the dry signal,
similar to how you would “bring up” the reverb on an aux send. As you
pass about 70 percent, the dry signal will quickly and smoothly begin to
drop until it is completely gone at 100 percent wet.

TIP: Use the Parameter Lock feature that is a part of all Soundtoys plug-
ins to lock your Mix knob where you want it while auditioning presets.
Our presets are almost all 100 percent wet. Hold Control + Option on
Mac or Control + Alt on Windows to lock a parameter. It will turn red
when it is locked. Parameters that are locked will not change when you
switch presets.

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 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Little Plate

SUPPORT INFORMATION

Please have the following information available to help assist our

support team:
Now that you’ve taken the time to learn all about Little Plate, have
fun, experiment, and make greatness! If our plug-ins helped you take
• The product version and serial number
your production to the next level, let us know, we’d love to hear from
you and what you were able to create with our software.
• The version number of your audio system (e.g ProTools
11.2.1, Cubase 8.0.5, Logic 10.2.0, Cakewalk Sonar X3)
If along the way however you should run into any hiccups or anything
unexpected, we offer free technical support for all registered users.
• Your interface/hardware (e.g. Mbox Pro, Apogee Quartet,
RME Fireface, etc.)
Our FAQ contains many helpful answers. you can find it at:

• Your computer and operating system info (e.g. MacPro OS X

http://support.soundtoys.com
10.9.5, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, etc.)
If you need further support you can find our Customer Support
• A detailed description of the problem
contact form at:

https://www.soundtoys.com/forms/support
CORPORATE CONTACT
You can also reach our support staff by e-mail at:

support@soundtoys.com Soundtoys, Inc.

225 Church St.

If neither of those options work for you, our office can be reached via Burlington, VT 05401

telephone at:
Phone: 802-951-9700

1-877-COOL-EFX Fax: 802-951-9799

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 Little Plate

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